That Blue Collar Look

Posted on July 5, 2012 by fsdthreshold

Bandana with panache. (*White shown. Also outfitted with black, red, and blue.)

Reflective safety vest that says, “Don’t run over me, Forklift!”

Rugged beard stubble.

Durable paperclip on the collar to keep track of those ear-protectors when the trash is really flying.

Hardhat built for the pings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

(*Safety glasses, gloves, and steel-toed shoes not shown.)

July 3, 2012

He’s got that Blue Collar look.

 

15 Responses to That Blue Collar Look

  1. fsdthreshold says:

    Didn’t mean to interrupt the comment stream from the last post. Let’s just continue it. (This post was inspired by a Saturday Night Live fake ad for desert dictator garb back in the ’80s titled The Khadhaffi Look.)

    Hagio, two dramatic things happened in my classrooms that I can remember:

    1. A student’s desk fell apart, and he crashed to the floor amid wood, metal supports, and bolts. Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt.

    2. In a class of very elderly ladies in Hokkaido, one lady clutched her chest and had shortness of breath during a lesson. I was turning pale and getting ready to call an ambulance, but her classmates said, “Oh, don’t worry, she does this all the time.” As one sat with her in the corner until she recovered, another, aged about 88, asked me, “Sensei, how do you say ‘heart’ in English?” (The afflicted lady was indeed fine in a few minutes.)

    Hagio, about statistics, I regret to say that there is no data from before May. I have kept such logs in the past, but only when writing rough drafts of novels. In revision stages, word counts become impossible to track and/or meaningless. And there was a lull of over a year there when I wasn’t doing any new writing. I was making the intensely painful move from Japan to the U.S. and trying to survive . . . then looking for a job . . . then overworked . . . then looking for a job . . . So it’s only recently that I’ve really begun writing again.

    Reply
  2. Buurenaar says:

    I know that feeling. My dear sweet mother, who is now in a nursing home and was neither dear nor sweet, forced me out of the house last year with her…antics. I had a car, three-quarters of a tank of gas, $800, and the clothes on my back. I stayed with my sister for a while and got an apartment as well as a job at a daycare. I considered corrupting them with nerdy awesomeness, but then, I just decided to make them readers and art lovers. Now, I’m back in college, considering dropping my second major, and trying to figure out what stories I want to write first.

    Reply
  3. fsdthreshold says:

    Buurenaar, you have true grit. Thanks for telling us about this. I’m sorry for what you went through, but your pluck and determination are an encouragement to all of us who slog onward into the adventure of life.

    It’s almost hot enough for me — what an exciting time of year! It’s deliciously hot on the paper line. If you’ll permit me to be indelicate: on both breaks today, I drank well over a quart of water each time, and I didn’t have to use the outhouse at all! That means my body needed every bit of that water (and it was being used for perspiration)! I’m not estimating — it was really over a quart, because my bottle held 1.05 quarts, and I drank it all and refilled it about halfway and drank that at each break. I do feel sorry for the guys who don’t like heat — I think some are miserable. I knew it was hot when sweat from my forehead was running down the insides of my safety glasses like rain! Pretty cool!

    The heaviest thing I’ve ever encountered on the line thundered down in front of me today. It was a fragment of a cast iron bathtub or sink. I pulled it off the belt, turned around, and dropped it onto the metal deck, as is our practice (to be put into the barrel later, when I had a chance). I dropped it from waist height, and it did not bounce! Just CRASH! onto the deck. It was like the ring in the scene in the movie version of The Lord of the Rings when Bilbo finally tips the ring from his hand onto the floor of Bag End and walks away, a free Hobbit, to spend time with the Elves. The ring lies there like it weighs a ton, now to be hung about the neck of Frodo.

    One guy at work told me about seeing some dead rats today. I hope the poor things aren’t suffering from the heat (seriously). The Greenstar cat was pretty lethargic yesterday, but seems to be doing okay.

    I encountered my alley skunk this morning when I took out my garbage! It seemed to have been sleeping in the neighbors’ garbage, and I woke it up. Not sure if I’ve reported this on the blog, but I encounter this skunk all the time. Sometimes we have some prolonged interaction as I try to figure out how to get past it to my door. Once, I saw it prowling the alley with a cat, as if they were friends or prowling partners.

    Summer is an interesting season.

    Reply
    • fsdthreshold says:

      Thanks, Michelle! One of my favorite parts of the job is getting to dress like this. 🙂

      “I sound my barbaric YAWP over the rooftops of the world.” — W.W.

      Reply
    • jhagman says:

      Fred, to make it more interesting, post a photo in your work garb at the end of the day, that way we can see all of the dirt. I hope you are carrying some kind of blade- that way you might be able to cut yourself out of any situations you get wrapped up in on that moving belt.

      Reply
      • fsdthreshold says:

        Jhagman, both of those are really good ideas. I’ll try to remember to take a photo, but I’m not sure how much of the dirt is visible. It’s mostly that we get soaked with sweat. I’ve started wearing the disposable sleeves they have available, and that keeps most of the grime off my shirt sleeves. I had been working a partial day just before I took these pictures — that was a day the machines broke down, and we got sent home early.

        That would be smart to have a means of cutting myself loose. There are safety cords all along both sides of the belt, and if anyone yanks on them, the whole system shuts down immediately. We’re always working in a group, so if anyone got into trouble, there would be about seven pairs of hands available to pull the cord. What often happens is that someone snags a cord without realizing it; when the belt stops at an unusual time, our first response is to check the button on the side of the chute to see if it’s been tripped. It’s embarrassing to have the white hats climbing all over the “broken” machines, looking for the source of the breakdown, and then to discover that someone on our line has just shut the system off by bumping into it.

        I had some fun today. The guy working behind me accidentally dropped his safety glasses, and they bounced off our deck and landed on a catwalk below. He could see them amid the clutter of junk that had accumulated there, but he was afraid to climb down through the railing to retrieve them. (It wasn’t a dangerous maneuver at all; I guess some guys just aren’t used to climbing.) With the line boss’s approval, I climbed down there and got them, since I was the next closest. I’ve always been the designated climber. In our college chapel, I was usually the one our campus pastor sent up ladders for the high work. Of course, a friend of mine in Japan points out the Japanese proverb, “Monkeys and idiots like high places.” 🙂

        Reply
      • hagiograph says:

        I vote that Fred, throught the magic of the intarwebs (probably using Javascript or something) provide us with “Smell-o-Vision” after a day or two at the Recycling Center!

        Reply
      • hagiograph says:

        I vote that Fred, throught the magic of the intarwebs (probably using Javascript or something) provide us with “Smell-o-Vision” after a day or two at the Recycling Center!

        Reply
  6. Hagiograph says:

    I have taken the time here to provide some links that we may all want to consider looking at. Perhaps someone should undertake to provide Mr. Durbin with a bit “MANLIER” bandana prints for wear under his manly hardhat:

    Skull: http://compare.ebay.com/like/350579236930?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

    Zombie Skull:
    http://www.greasegasandglory.com/Zombie-Skull-Bandana.html

    American Flag: http://www.hotleathers.com/Hot-Leathers-American-Flag-Headwrap-P32863C861.aspx

    Flames: http://www.hotleathers.com/Front-Flame-Micro-Fiber-Headwrap-P33057C861.aspx

    Rebel Flag: (yeeha): http://www.hotleathers.com/Rebel-Flag-Biker-Headwrap-P31882C861.aspx

    Skull+Crossbones: http://www.hotleathers.com/Hot-Leathers-Skull-Crossbones-Headwrap-P16552C861.aspx

    Ride or Die Hardcore: http://www.hotleathers.com/-Hot-Leathers-Hardcore-Teeth-Bandana-P33996C856.aspx

    Rebel Skull + Cowboy Hat: http://www.hotleathers.com/Hot-Leathers-Southern-Discomfort-Bandana-P16247C856.aspx

    SOLID PINK (No one messes with a man wearing pink, especially when he looks as manly, scary and unhinged as Fred): http://www.hotleathers.com/Hot-Leathers-Solid-Pink-Cotton-Head-Wrap-P6674C861.aspx

    Sorry, unable to find any naked ladies.

    Reply
  7. Buurenaar says:

    Don’t tempt me to make you a JRR emblem pink one…though I don’t see anything right off, aside from digital bandanas in the LOTRO store. Awww….my strip of pink is too narrow. However, I do have mad skills and some suitable navy cotton. 😛 (Pardon the use of emoticons; it was necessary.)

    Reply

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